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A Climate of Alertness
GTU’s New Library Director
On July 1, the GTU welcomed Bonnie Hardwick, the new director for the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library. For fourteen years on the staff of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, she brings to GTU time-polished skills in everything from reference, collection development, manuscripts, and cataloguing to staff management and obtaining grant funding. And with a master’s degree from the Franciscan School of Theology, and an interest both scholarly and personal in Christian iconography, her strong connections to the GTU mission will add new vitality to the community.
Hardwick is a person with many enthusiasms and the energy, luckily, to pursue them all. She holds a Ph.D. in American literature and an M.A. in librarianship and information science, as well as her M.T.S. from the Franciscan School. She worked at the Bancroft Library from 1985 to 1998, first as head of the Manuscripts Division, and then as curator of the Bancroft Collection of Western Americana.
She discovered the GTU as a student back in 1995, through a friend who mentioned some classes on art and spirituality. It had been a year since the untimely death of Hardwick’s husband, and as part of the mourning process she was “looking for a creative act to bring joy back into my life.”
Intrigued, Hardwick took two classes that first semester, one on Christian iconography, taught by Tom Doolan, and another on the Franciscan contemplative tradition, taught by Dean Bill Shore. “These two classes opened up the whole world of the GTU and the dynamism of the thought here,” Hardwick says. “They started to be the most compelling thing I did. Friends would say, this is the most important thing that's happening to you because this is all you talk about!”
As a student, Hardwick spent much time in the library she now directs. She remembers “I always found the library staff very helpful, even when I complained about the photocopy machines. And it’s a lovely library. I liked finding a spot for the day and just working. I was impressed by the beauty of the library.”
Santos of the Southwest
Hardwick continued to work fulltime while taking usually two courses every semester. During her marriage, she and her husband had spent much time in New Mexico, where Hardwick had become fascinated with the santos of the Southwest. Her 1998 thesis was on this Hispanic folk tradition of religious images that flourished in New Mexico in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that has enjoyed a revival in the last fifty years. Traditional and contemporary santos are in either the form of "bultos," three-dimensional images carved out of wood then covered with gesso and painted, or "retablos," paintings on gessoed wood panels.
What’s so important about the santos, according to Hardwick, is that “it’s not just a craft, it’s a spirituality. The santeros (saintmakers) know that these images are purchased by people for whom this is not a tradition. And who perhaps don’t have the spirituality they have. But there’s also a great confidence in the power of the image itself. It goes into someone’s home and truly graces the home.”
Hardwick began to see the influence of Byzantine iconography on the santos. The notion of developing a series of lectures on the relationship between traditional Christian iconography and its particular flourishing in Spain, Mexico, and New Mexico intrigued her. At the same time, a number of her major projects were finishing at the Bancroft Library, and she was assured that funding for her position would continue.
Together with these intellectual and professional developments, Hardwick wanted to devote more time to her own practice of icon-painting, which she describes as “a very contemplative activity, a form of prayer.” Thus, in the fall of 1998, Hardwick left the Bancroft Library and moved to Santa Fe, in a mood, she says, of great openness.
The Road Back to Berkeley
On her first visit back to Berkeley, news of the GTU library director search reached Hardwick. And then, she says, “I just flat out got curious.”
After a lengthy interview process, Hardwick was offered the position in January. “The centrality of the library is something that attracted me,” Hardwick says. “We’re not on the periphery of the institution, we’re at the heart. The attitude towards the library at GTU is really so great. Everyone, from administrators to new students, feels an ownership in the library, and has a vested interest in it succeeding. It’s a wonderful place to be.”
Her love for the Bay Area also influenced Hardwick. “As much as I like New Mexico, I also found that I really, really like it here. You can look out over the bay and see the beauty and the energy. People say we're in a secular society. But we're in a seeking society. Where people are seeking knowledge, there's spirituality.”
She maintains a home in Santa Fe and flies there for the weekend once or twice a month. She says she’s mostly avoided feeling split: being in Berkeley, and being in Santa Fe, both feel “rejuvenating.” Hardwick laughs at what’s involved in maintaining two homes and having two of everything: “I will never need another pair of slippers for the rest of my life!”
Technology, Space, Communication
Technology is first on Hardwick’s list of library projects. “More and more we’re going to see technology impacting instruction, not only in library resources but in the classroom itself. The faculty is becoming much more interested in how they can incorporate technology into their classes. The library will be continuing to carry out instruction for students and faculty, and helping them develop things on the Internet.” Projects in the works include a technological curriculum development lab, an electronic classroom, and the digital image database.
The library's space needs, Hardwick says, go hand in hand with the technology needs. “We absolutely have to have more space.” At 85% capacity, the library is considered full. Compact, movable shelving is the short-term plan to address immediate space needs, but a building expansion is imperative.
Creating space for the new technologies is a priority, together with some necessary refurbishing of the building. Hardwick says “we have both long term and short term goals. The short term is how do we accommodate what we really need right now, without spending money that we’ll have to re-spend when we can expand. We’ve been studying that the past couple of months, and are coming up with plans that I think are very sensible and cost-effective.”
Hardwick is very enthusiastic about the art exhibit program that goes on in the library. "The fact that we create a climate of beauty in the library shows respect for people. It shows that we see beauty as a part of truth and goodness." She is also working to strengthen the image and presence of the Friends of the Library group, which she sees as a key resource for the library.
Building the collection to support evolving programs within GTU is a focus for Hardwick’s tenure. A recent conversation with a new faculty member in homiletics helped her to identify some areas in which the library collection could be improved. A "climate of alertness," where communication with library users occurs freely, is vital to building the collection, according to Hardwick.
Indeed, one of the main things that has struck her in her new position is how important it is at GTU for people to talk to each other. “There’s almost nothing we do that doesn’t affect someone else. This is a very interconnected place. And there's a level of joy here that is wonderful. The whole of GTU works through problems all the time, but we wouldn't still be here if there wasn't that level of joy. And I think I can't live without that.”
2008 New Way Media Festival
